The National Institutes of Health has funded a new phase of ongoing research into the link between trauma, social connectedness and health in the Blackfeet community, and the Montana State University researcher leading the project hopes it will provide data to enable future community-developed programs focused on improving health.

Neha John-Henderson, associate professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Letters and Science and co-principal investigator for the study, said the work will build on that conducted under a four-year, $2.18 million NIH grant she was awarded in 2021 to investigate dynamic relationships between social connectedness and health risk and health resilience on the Blackfeet Reservation.